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A secret report reveals the State Government is planning to
build a rail tunnel under Sydney Harbour and a new line under the
city to ease congestion on the increasingly gridlocked CityRail
network.

The report - prepared by senior government planners but never
publicly released - says a tunnel is Sydney's best option to cope
with the extra 35,000 morning peak hour trips that will be made
into the central business district by 2020.

The Premier, Bob Carr, is expected to unveil the plan at this
weekend's Labor Party conference, as well as a detailed timetable
to expand the rail network to new suburbs on the city's fringe over
the next 15 years.

The tunnel would be part of a new line from Central Station to
St Leonards, to be built in stages. Ultimately, five new stations
would be built - at Park Street, opposite Town Hall; at Castlereagh
Street near Martin Place; at George Street at the Rocks; at North
Sydney, called Victoria Cross; and at Crows Nest.

The Castlereagh Street station would link up with Martin Place
which would become the city's main station as a result.

The report does not say how much the project will cost or how it
will be paid for, but it is understood Mr Carr will explain some of
the finance details this weekend.

The Herald was denied official access to the report,
despite repeated attempts under freedom of information laws, but a
copy has since been leaked.

The project appears to kill off the planned MetroWest line,
which was to run under Sussex or Kent streets with a new station
near Chinatown. The report says the line is unfeasible because it
would take commuters farther away from where jobs are growing and
provide less relief for congested stations.

As the Herald revealed last week, the MetroWest would
have been extremely expensive. The report says the Government would
have to demolish eight office buildings and reinforce the
structures of another 21 buildings to construct the line.

Instead, the CBD line and twin-track harbour tunnel would
"better serve" the areas predicted to experience the biggest jobs
growth in the next decade. "Contrary to some earlier expectations,
much of the development that has occurred in recent years along the
[CBD's] western fringe has been heavily residential rather than
employment-related," the report says.

It is understood that under the Government's ambitious 15-year
plan, the Chatswood-to-Epping line would be finished by 2008 and
the south-west would have a rail link to Leppington by 2012, six
years earlier than originally planned.

The report says the tunnel would be built by 2018, along with
the new stations at North Sydney and Crows Nest. To allow for the
long-overdue upgrades of Town Hall and Wynyard, the Government
would need to build the CBD line's deepest station, the one at the
Rocks, by 2014.

Mr Carr's spokeswoman last night told the Herald that the
Government would not make any announcements on its transport
strategies yet. "Ultimately these matters are for the Premier and
Cabinet, but I am not ready to make any comments," Amanda Lampe
said.

The report argues that the network is in such dire need of
expansion that a cross-city rail link would be needed as early as
2010 and no later than 2020, depending on whether the north-west
rail line to Rouse Hill went ahead.